Time once again for the dreaded university entrance exams. And with Nanjing having more students per capita than any other city in China, so there has been a big focus these days on making sure students are afforded their best chances for success.
The exams, known in Chinese as “Gaokao” (高考), have become famed worldwide. And essential to that traditionally viewed in China as a young person’s one and only chance at a better life, is a quiet environment.
2022’s year’s university entrance exams got under way this Tuesday, 7 June. And among the tests scheduled for yesterday afternoon was English.
Compared with other examinations, those for English listening comprehension have obviously higher requirements for the exam site’s surrounding environment. These are also among the factors about which candidates and parents are most concerned every year, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
In order to provide such an environment at the prestigious High School Affiliated to Nanjing Normal University on Chaha’er Lu in Gulou District, authorities started Tuesday going door to door nearby.
Officers from the Yijiang Men Division of Nanjing Gulou Urban Management called in on all businesses, shops and residential areas around the test centre.
Their message was simple. Keep the noise down.
Shops and merchants were informed that they are strictly prohibited from disturbing the quiet with their little loudspeakers advertising their deals of the day, etc.
Just down the road from the School, construction has been going on forever on Fujian Lu Metro Station. In the interests of students taking the English exam, even such a critical public-works project was told to cease operations.
Similar stories have unfolded across Nanjing, with construction sites nearby schools ordered to keep it down at night, while Gaokao examinees cram furiously.
But when that terrifying time comes, all will need their ID card to enter the examination site. As The Paper reports, one Nanjing student almost didn’t make it; she had lost her ID card.
Normally about the biggest nightmare imaginable, that this happened to Ms Li right before the most important exams of her life was unfathomable.
But Nanjing’s finest came through once again. Officers at Yuhuatai District Government Affairs Service Hall had a brand new ID card in Ms Li’s hands in just a few hours. They also later flatly refused a thank you gift comprising… Two watermelons.
